Breaking the Ice
by somewhereinthedreams
Summary: Paige calls Mike in the middle of the night without meaning to. Set Post-Season 3.


**A/N: I'm hopelessly addicted to sixwordshort on twitter. The prompt for this came from there: "Wrong number," said a familiar voice.**

 **As always, thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing (and to the guests leaving your names). Enjoy!**

* * *

Paige let out an exasperated sigh as she glanced at her watch.

1:57 am.

Johnny was close to being an hour late. She was going to strangle him and whatever blonde or brunette that was undoubtedly keeping him occupied as soon as he showed up. His bodywarmer could wait until later.

Johnny was supposed to relieve her on surveillance. It was _his_ case and _he_ was late.

Forget strangling him, she was going to make him do her chores for the next two weeks and buy her drinks if he didn't show up within the next ten minutes.

Agitated, Paige tapped her fingers on the dashboard. She noted that the polish on one of her nails was chipped. She should've brought it with her, because apparently she had time to do her nails while on surveillance. There had been zero activity at the warehouse and she had been here forever.

The minutes ticked by one by one. It seemed like they were ticking by even more slowly since she was watching the clock. Once ten minutes passed, Paige pulled out her phone and dialed the missing agent.

She sacrificed her first free night in weeks to help him out and this was how he repaid her?

Her annoyance grew as Johnny's phone kept ringing. He was late and didn't even have the courtesy to answer the phone? If he wasn't shot, she was going to shoot him herself.

The moment Johnny picked up the phone, she started talking, not even giving him a chance to offer some lame excuse. "You're late, Johnny," Paige snapped.

"Wrong number," said a familiar voice.

Mike.

Not Johnny.

She forgot she reprogrammed the speed dial on her phone the night before, bumping Mike from 3 to 7, and Johnny up to 4 from 7.

"Sorry," Paige apologized. It was after two am. She probably woke him up.

"No, no, it's okay. Do you need anything?"

"Just for Johnny's late ass to show up."

"I thought you were working his case."

"I am and he should've been here close to an hour ago."

"If you're tired or something, I can come relieve you," Mike offered. "Or keep you company. I could bring you some coffee."

She was tempted to take him up on his offer. It was nice to hear his voice on the other end of the line. It would be even nicer to talk with him in person. But she shouldn't.

Shouldn't rush things between them. They were slowly rebuilding their friendship. She shouldn't push her luck for more. She had her chance with Mike and destroyed it. Now the best she could hope for was being his friend again.

"He'll probably get here before you do."

"Probably." Mike sighed. "Anything exciting happening over there?"

"Nothing. I'm not even sure why I'm here. I can't wait to get home and crawl into bed."

"Long day?"

"Just the usual thrilling day of following the money trail of this heroin dealer." She had looked at so many bank statements earlier that she could barely see straight.

"Look on the bright side."

"There's a bright side?"

"We still have spoons."

" _It's kind of quiet in here. Jakes and John still staking out the gym?" Mike asked, following her into the kitchen._

" _Yep, your Odin/Bello case is like a black hole sucking everybody into its nothingness," Paige said, searching the kitchen drawer and dishwasher for spoons. "Including the spoons."_

" _Ahem." Mike reached above the cabinet and pulled down a spoon and offered it to her. "Careful it doesn't suck you in too."_

" _Nope, I've got my own undercover heroin case tonight." Paige snatched the spoon from him and was close to pressing it against his nose, but she resisted the urge. "This is why we have no spoons."_

Paige laughed softly, remembering their conversation from the summer before. Was that really only last summer? It seemed like it was a lifetime ago. They had both changed so much.

Paige's attention drifted across the parking lot as a black SUV pulled in and slowly approached her. "Speak of the devil, I think he's here now."

"Don't kill him until after he gets home, otherwise you'll be stuck there all night."

"That's a very good point. Hey, I should get going." As much as she would like to stay on the phone with Mike, she needed to deal with Johnny. She could deal with Mike _tomorrow_.

Or the day after that.

Things were still awkward between them. They weren't really avoiding each other, but they weren't going out of their way to spend time with each other aside from working together. Every time they worked together, it was as if things never changed between them. Working together was never the problem. They trusted each other _in_ the field, it was off of it where things were difficult.

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Night, Mike," Paige softly said.

"Night, Paige." Mike ended the call and stared up at the ceiling in his darkened room. He wondered how he and Paige got to this place where it took her misdialing a number in order for her to call him. Forget the fact that her room was next to his and they ate breakfast together nearly every day, _that_ was the longest conversation they had in weeks.

Their caseloads were completely separate. Briggs was helping him out with his money laundering case and Paige was helping Johnny with his heroin case. They were both busy and there weren't many opportunities for them to work together since their cases dealt with different targets, different families, different everything.

He rotated his neck a little, trying to work out the kink in his neck. He gathered up the files scattered on the edge of his bed and tossed them on his desk. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants before wandering downstairs.

* * *

Paige got home a little after 3am. Her attention was drawn to the living room when she noticed the TV flickering in the otherwise dark house and instead of crawling into bed like she wanted to do, she found herself heading to the living room. Her eyes drifted to the couch, smiling softly when she saw Mike stretched out underneath a blanket, watching a movie.

"Popcorn?" Mike offered.

Paige nodded and kicked off her shoes before sitting down next to him. She didn't recognize the movie he was watching. Some b-grade slasher movie that probably wasn't even shown in the theaters. She reached her hand in the bowl, offering him a nervous smile as her fingers brushed against his. "What are you watching?"

"Woodsman John VI."

"Isn't that the movie that was filming this summer?"

"That's VII, this is VI."

"Gotcha." She usually wasn't into starting a movie in the middle, but she had a feeling the plot wouldn't be that hard to figure out. There was a lumberjack attacking teenagers at a boarding school.

They sat there in a comfortable silence, engrossed in the movie. She was surprised that it was actually decent. It didn't make her want to watch any of the other movies, but it wasn't half bad.

Paige took another handful of popcorn and started tossing the popcorn kernels in her mouth one by one, stopping only when she noticed a few M&Ms in her hand.

Popcorn with M&Ms. Mike made her favorite snack. He wasn't crazy about mixing them, he would only do it willingly if she threatened to withhold sex. Usually she would have to sneak them in there.

" _What are you doing?" Mike asked, protectively shielding the bowl from her._

" _Come on, it's better this way. Sweet and salty. It's the perfect snack."_

" _I don't like the chocolate mixed with the popcorn. It gets all melty and - "_

" _And that's why it's perfect!"_

" _Get your own bowl, keep your M &Ms out of mine."_

 _Paige rolled her eyes and quickly kissed Mike. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer, setting the popcorn on the counter. Taking advantage of the fact that he was distracted, Paige dumped her bag of M &Ms in the bowl before he had a chance to react._

But this, he did this all on his own.

"Mike, I..."

Paige blinked back tears, unable to stop herself from being emotional about his simple gesture.

Mike set the popcorn down on the floor and lifted the edge of his blanket as an invitation. Paige inched closer to him and the moment his arm wrapped around her, the tears she was holding back started silently streaming down her face.

"It's okay," Mike murmured, pulling her closer.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Paige whispered, burying her face in his chest.

Mike touched her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "I am too." He tenderly stroked her face, before resting his forehead against hers. Mike brushed away her tears with his thumbs, resisting the urge to kiss her. He wanted to, but he shouldn't. He could be patient. He could wait for them to figure things out.

He _knew_ Paige. Her emotions got the best of her and she could easily shut him out if she was overwhelmed. They would have to move slowly, at her pace.

It had taken them months to get here and to think it was all because of one misdialed number.

THE END


End file.
